“That’ll fix you right up,” she says as I blink back everything I was feeling and glare at her. “Now, about that dress. What would you give me for one?”
I take off the pair of pearl earrings from the Undersea. “How about these? For the dress and the soup.” They are worth more than the price of ten dresses, but I do not want to engage in any more bargaining, especially with Mother Marrow.
She takes them, sliding her teeth over the nacre, then tucking them away in a pocket. “Well enough.” Out of another pocket, she takes a walnut and holds it out to me.
I raise my eyebrows.
“Don’t you trust me, girl?” she asks.
“Not as far as I can throw you,” I return, and she lets out another cackle.
Still, something is in the walnut, and it’s probably some kind of gown, because otherwise she wouldn’
